Liga Portugal partners with LaLiga Tech to boost its technology development

LaLiga Tech and Liga Portugal have announced a new partnership that will improve the technology development of the Portuguese competition, helping it to enhance its content and construct more impactful global fan engagements through a digital ecosystem. 

As a first step in the process, Portuguese football clubs will be given privileged access to LaLiga Tech’s Brand Protection technology services that reduce the incidence of counterfeit merchandise being sold online.

The services form part of the ecosystem of sports technologies offered by LaLiga Tech to help sports organisations around the world accelerate their digital transformation. Liga Portugal will present the Brand Protection solutions, which provide detection, analysis and removal of illegal products, to its 34 member clubs with the intention of further safeguarding their intellectual property.

Brand Protection services are exclusively designed to monitor, report and remove the sale of counterfeit products online, using machine learning to detect illegal products in seconds. Various aspects of the product being sold are considered in real-time, including the price, sales channel, security certificates, delivery times and user comments.

Once assessment has been made, LaLiga Tech is able to secure quick removal of all products detected as fraudulent, due to its close working relationships with the world’s leading online retailers.

Organisations already using Brand Protection services include Tomateros de Culiacán, one of Mexico’s leading baseball clubs, sports manufacturers Concept2 and the Royal Belgian Football Federation. This season, all customers have seen more than 90% of illegal products successfully removed from online sale.

Pedro Proença, Liga Portugal President said: “The technological revolution has arrived in football. Partnerships like this one, between Liga Portugal with LaLiga Tech, show how technological development can increase the promotion of competitions, increase their competitiveness, improve the game itself and increase brand impact and engagement with fans in an increasingly digital world. We are proud of this partnership in the fight against fraud, which is just one of the aspects of this agreement. Counterfeit material is a threat to the clubs' intellectual property, to brands and, above all, something that deceives fans by taking away the experience that only an official product can provide."

Javier Tebas, LaLiga President added: “Counterfeit products damage club revenues, supplier relationships and fan experiences. We are pleased to join our allies at Liga Portugal to safeguard the important revenues that merchandising generates and to enhance the competition’s digitalisation strategy. Since launching its services last year, LaLiga Tech has helped sports properties to protect over €9 billion worth of content and establish more direct and profitable relationships with their fans, which underlines technology’s ability to further strengthen the industry.”